It girl
- For the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar, see The It Girl.
An It girl or It-girl is a charming, sexy young woman who receives intense media coverage unrelated or disproportional to personal achievements. The reign of an "It girl" is usually temporary; some of the rising It girls will either become fully-fledged celebrities or their popularity will fade. The term "It boy", much less frequently used, is the male equivalent.
Clara Bow and It (1927)
The term was coined by English romance novelist and screenwriter Elinor Glyn to describe actress Clara Bow as she appeared in the 1927 Hollywood silent film It. Glyn described the term thus:
- "IT" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "IT" you win all men if you are a woman—all women if you are a man. "IT" can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction.[1]
and
- Self-confidence and indifference whether you are pleasing or not—and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold. That's "IT".[1]
However, the movie also plays with the notion that "it" is a quality which eschews definitions and categories; consequently the girl portrayed by Bow is an amalgam of an ingenue and a femme fatale, with a touch of "material girl". By contrast, her rival is equally young and comely, and even rich, blonde and well-bred to boot, but she simply hasn't got "it".
Based on Glyn's novella of the same title, the movie was planned as a special showcase for the popular Paramount Studios star. Owing to Glyn's widely publicized pronouncement, the term It girl entered the cultural lexicon. Bow's contemporary and friend, the actress Louise Brooks was also widely described as an "It girl", especially retrospectively.
Modern "It girls"
Since 1927 the term has been extended beyond the world of film, referring to whoever in society, fashion or the performing arts was in vogue at the time, and eventually extending beyond young female performing artists to mere "media celebrities".
From the 1960s onwards, singer and Rolling Stones' muse Marianne Faithfull, Talitha Getty, model Jean Shrimpton, actress and socialite Edie Sedgwick, actress and comedienne Goldie Hawn, 1980s "wild child" Amanda de Cadenet, model Kate Moss, socialite/actress Paris Hilton,her sister model\socalite Nicky Hilton actress Tara Reid, pop icon Britney Spears, actress Mischa Barton, actress and socialite Nicole Richie, model Kimberly Stewart, actress and "boho" designer Sienna Miller, TV presenter and socialite Alexa Chung, actress Kate Bosworth, actress Keira Knightley, twin actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, actress Lindsay Lohan and actress Kirsten Dunst have had their reign as It girls.
The writer William Donaldson observed that, having initially been coined in the 1920s, the term was applied in the 1990s to describe "a young woman of noticeable 'sex appeal' who occupied herself by shoe shopping and party-going."[2]
Musical
Glyn's movie script was adapted into a musical called The It Girl, which opened off-Broadway in 2001 at the York Theatre Company starring Jean Louisa Kelly[3].
External links
- Clara Bow, the original It girl